In-plant Profiles

One Heck of a Ride
May 1, 2007

Allen Palovik’s tenure at Knott’s Berry Farm Amusement Park, in Buena Park, Calif., resembles a ride on a roller coaster. It’s filled with ups and downs but keeps moving forward. Thirty-three years ago, as a high school student, Palovik took a job at the amusement park. He never left. Now, as supervisor of Reprographics, Palovik, sits back at his desk while the loud roar of the renowned Ghost Rider roller coaster shakes his office, and reflects on his time at Knott’s Berry Farm with fond memories and a deep appreciation of his place in the park’s rich history. Palovik was born and raised in Buena Park,

A Print Shop Built for Two
May 1, 2007

The in-plant employees at Lincoln University have 38 years of experience in the printing industry. Of course with only two people on staff—printing supervisor Gary Griffin (20 years) and his assistant (18 years)—a lot of that experience is about how to do more with less. “I run the press at least two-and-a-half days per week,” says Griffin. He spends the remaining time writing job specs for outsourced work, delivering jobs with a two-wheeled hand dolly and doing any number of odd jobs. To keep on top of the work at the Jefferson, Mo., campus, Griffin tries to set up his calendar year far

Two for the Price of One
May 1, 2007

Meeting the printing needs of a 2,100-student liberal arts college is tough enough with just three employees. But when your main digital color printer can’t keep up with the growing volume of work—and you still have two years left on the lease—it’s time to take serious action. After shutting down its offset presses for good last June and putting its trust in its Canon CLC 4000, Allegheny College Printing Services, in Meadville, Pa., saw volume on the machine skyrocket. Clicks jumped from 19,000 to more than 40,000 a month. Unfortunately, the number of service calls grew as well. So Manager Mark Pritchard talked

Community Service Aids In-plant
May 1, 2007

“Because we’re a two-person shop, we’re limited in what we’re able to accomplish,” acknowledges Richard Showers, printing supervisor for the city of Longmont, Colo. Jobs tend to back up, he adds. To ease the burden, Showers came up with a unique solution 10 years ago. Knowing that law breakers were often sentenced to perform community service, he proposed letting them carry out that service by helping in the city in-plant. His small staff would get a helping hand (without owing wages) and the mostly youthful offenders would learn a little about printing. The idea was a hit. Today, those sentenced to community service in

Small Shop, Big Color
May 1, 2007

While many small in-plants only dream of adding a large digital color press, Printing Services at Georgia Perimeter College made that dream happen four years ago when the five-employee shop installed an HP Indigo 1000. Though Associate Director Barbara Lindsay originally thought she would justify the press based on the variable data printing opportunities it would create, so far the digital press’s on-demand color capabilities are what have made it such a success at the Clarkston, Ga., college. “Our business cards and our letterhead were all three-color,” she says. “This was relatively expensive to have printed outside.” With the HP

Teaching the Craft
May 1, 2007

When Jim Sabulski, manager of Printing and Mailing Services at College Misericordia in Dallas, Pa., asked to bring non-college work in house, he was given the O.K.—as long as the clients were other non-profit institutions. Misericordia lies between two school districts, so Sabulski reached out to them and started bringing in work. What’s more, Sabulski and one of the school districts are developing a training program in graphic arts for middle and high school students. “As soon as we start teaching printing, we can apply for grants that help us with equipment or space,” he says. “We also develop potential College Misericordia students.

One-man Workout
May 1, 2007

There aren’t too many private athletic clubs that have their own in-plants. But for nearly 17 years now, John Ashby has been serving as the one-man print shop for the Washington Athletic Club, a 17,840-member club in downtown Seattle. Using a two-color Ryobi 512, he produces more than a million impressions a year, handling about 80 percent of WAC’s printing. This includes four-color jobs, like the 28-page “menu of services” he recently printed. He single-handedly cranked out 2,500 of the 4x5.5˝ pieces, each with an 80-lb. cover. “That job took me a little while,” he recalls. Ashby prints three membership mailings a

A More Professional Look
May 1, 2007

Sometimes you can’t get money for upgrades no matter how badly you need them—and sometimes you get a license to spend. Rocky Reynolds, reprographics supervisor at the Citrus College in-plant in Glendora, Calif., says he kept hearing requests from higher-ups for a more professional and business-oriented look to all of the campus’ publications, even for flyers and brochures. “We were sending a lot of work off-campus to get that look, even with a Xerox 2060 for color work,” he says. After investigating available digital presses, the in-plant, which has just three full-time and two part-time employees, installed a Xerox iGen3. “We’re

Above Par for the Course
May 1, 2007

Deliveries from the Visual Communications department at Lake Forest College, in Illinois, are handled in style, thanks to the vintage 1964 golf cart that the department purchased two years ago. “We had nothing but hand trucks to make deliveries,” says Leslie Taylor, director. “We’re trying to have more of a presence on campus. In the hood of the cart is a cooler, so when we deliver in the summer, we offer cold pop or water to whoever’s getting the job.” As part of its outreach program, the Visual Communications department—which is located in a large building that once served as a dog kennel—has

Sharing Enables High-tech Upgrade
April 1, 2007

Though it has just seven employees, Northeast Wisconsin Technical College Printing Services installed a new HP Indigo 3050 digital press last August. How? By agreeing to use it for both academic and production purposes. “The educational tie-in was the primary reason we got this press,” testifies John M. Reinders, applied print technology instructor. “It was purchased by our academic program with the understanding that we would use the press. Without this connection with our printing program we would not have this device on our floor.” When the press isn’t being used to prepare students for digital print careers, it is busy producing full-color printing for the